 The live stage show here at E3 2011, I'm Chris Waters here to talk about a game that I had the pleasure of seeing yesterday in Nintendo's booth but that you're going to have fun seeing right now it's the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. Joining me is Eric Peterson, localization producer for the game Eric, welcome to the stage, great to be here. Excited to show you the game? Yeah, it's a pretty exciting game to be showing off, I mean Legend of Zelda doesn't make a whole lot of appearances and so here at E3 you guys are on the show floor in a big way. Yeah, we're really excited to show off this game to people, giving some hands-on time, you can see those evens that's up in the booth with the birds, we're going to be showing you a bunch of stuff today, I kind of want to run through a little bit about what we're showing here and maybe give you some more background info. Well let's first talk about the birds before we do too much else because we just saw that awesome leap off into the cliff, into the clouds, you're just free falling for a moment. Oh it feels so good, feels so good. It does and then boom, your trusty mounts swoops under and now you're flying a bird. Yeah, so what you're seeing here is a little bit of bird riding, I should give a little background information on what's going on there, so Link has grown up in a world that really knows only a life above the clouds, they really only live there for as long as anyone can remember and their whole knowledge is just living above the clouds and flying birds and as you can see here a little bit, there's an expansive area above the clouds here that you can actually go later on and explore. It's a little bit kind of like the ocean, where you can head out, check things out, actually a lot of these little islands here that you're seeing off in the distance, you can actually fly over them, leap off and land on, do a little bit of exploration, now do you get back on the bird by jumping off into oblivion again? Exactly, you can jump off again and in this world they don't really know anything below the clouds, it's been kind of a forbidden dark and evil place and all they've known is the life above the clouds. So of course later on you're going to explore that world with Link in the clouds. Sort of that similar start in the little village, expand into the world beyond, that a lot of legends of Zelda games embrace. Well speaking of that village, one of the areas you can kind of see here is a village called Skyloft and that's going to be kind of a hub area in the game. We're going to be going back there again, maybe picking up some extra potions, maybe upgrading your items, but speaking of upgrading, one of the really cool things about Skyloft, is that in the previous games you might collect tons of rupees and maybe by the end of the game you're not even sure what you want to spend them on, or you just have so many that you're all set. Believe me, there's no shortage of things to spend your rupees on in this one, actually beyond that you're going to be collecting items throughout your adventure and some of them are pretty hard to find, it's not easy to get. And really amassing those and then you're going to be spending them to upgrade things like some of your items, maybe even your shields and so it's a reason to keep collecting stuff, keep finding stuff. Sure, I mean that whole classic Zelda mechanic of you gain your bow and arrow but then you gain the fire arrows, you get your wallet but then you get your wallet that can actually hold a couple hundred rupees that just keeps driving you forward and exploring. Well in this game there's just more reason than ever to keep exploring, keep checking things out and that upgrade system actually really adds a lot to the game. No doubt. So we just saw bird riding which is obviously a form of locomotion akin to sailing King of the Red Lions in Wind Waker, similar design to coloration too from the boat to the bird as well. And later on you're going to see that you can actually open these portals down into the world below and fly down and explore those areas and then you're actually going to be able to go back up at will using these statues so that's something you're going to have to kind of stay tuned to see more of. Sure, yeah you explore and you go further and further but then you master that exploration and you can travel a little quicker. Very cool. So tell us where we've ended up now. You know, Link is back in his iconic outfit. Yes. Rocking the Hylian Shield. Yes. A couple things to point out here. This is the first dungeon that you're going to be experiencing in the game and a couple of things to really mention here is that this is a game that uses Wemotion Plus and it really uses it to amazing effect. You know, everything from, you know, controlling your items here, you know, you've got Julien here who's playing is controlling the beetle. Flying that around, you're going to be using Wemotion Plus for all of that. To all of the sword fighting, it just feels so realistic, so real. You have a real connectedness to it and actually, you know, here's an enemy here and he'll face off against this guy. It's almost like, you know, every enemy you face is kind of his own combat puzzle. You know, because you can't just like, you know, spam a button or just kind of, you know, flail to really, you know, beat an enemy. What you're really going to notice is that, you know, they're going to be blocking attacks. Sure. You know, if they have their sword rays vertically, you know, you have to think about that and maybe you're going to slash down because if you come from the side, they're going to block them. They're going to block you at least. So you really have to approach every enemy as its own combat puzzle. And you see, you know, one of the visual indicators of this Wemotion Plus functionality, folks, is if you see Link, he's holding his sword out. He's not holding it in the same place every time. He's maybe holding it off the right a little bit, a little higher, a little lower. That's that Wemotion Plus in action. Exactly. I mean, it really feels like you have that sword in your hand. So if you, for example, want to be, you know, slicing from the side, you're actually going to do a side slice. You can even do things like, you know, slice from, you know, a diagonally up, you know, any angle you want. And you're going to, you're going to see later on in this demo that you're going to face off enemies that really require you to constantly be attacking them from whatever opening you can see. Now folks are, you know, very intrigued by the sword and also certainly about Zelda canon. One of the questions coming in from James in England is about left hand versus right hand. All right, you know, which sword, which is like sword hand. It's understandable. You know, it's always something that comes up, you know, you know, traditionally what we've done with these games is, you know, when you have that nunchuck, you know, that's on your left hand controlling that. In this game, you know, we're going to stick with that right hand controlling it the most. Okay. Now, user chaos blade in London wants to look back at the bird section a little bit and wonder, wonders if there's combat when you're on the bird. You know, that's something you're going to have to stay tuned on a little bit. You know, we're probably going to talk a little bit more of that later. But, you know, we got to leave a few surprises for you. You don't want to know everything right now, do you? Yeah, fair enough. I mean, I kind of do. I kind of do. And here we see a skeleton just being sliced apart. Right, right. Again, you folks probably saw the skeleton, you know, holding its sword. That's a great example. You know, the skeleton is constantly moving, you know, their sword's blocking, and you have to see that opening and strike right when you're at that moment. Just another example of how that combat can be a puzzle. You know, another thing I want to mention about the dungeons in this game, or, you know, this is the first dungeon, but this is a, this is the first game, you know, in a series where I really felt like, you know, everything is a puzzle, and sometimes it's a dungeon just to get into the dungeon. I mean, it really, it's like, you know, the lead-ups to these things are, you know, just as challenging in a way as a dungeon itself. There's no easy entrance to these things. It expands the challenge out beyond. Absolutely, and this is not a game that's easy. Alright, there's some real challenges to this one. I think fans are going to be impressed. Yeah, that's actually a question we got through here about the difficulty of the boss battles, you know, was wondering, you know, is it going to be easy? It's going to pose a good challenge. I think it will pose plenty of challenge for people. This game is going to be pretty tough. It's pretty brutal. Now, I have a question, because I got a chance to play this demo yesterday. Got the upgraded beetle, and then this sort of, this woman dressed in a cloak, she's got a gem on her head up her ears. Who is she? Okay, that's a major story element. Another thing that you don't really want to, you don't really want to know too much about right now. This is one of those games that, you know, when you dive into it for that first time, you really want to know as little as possible in that kind of stuff, because the story itself is just amazing. It's done a great job with that stuff. And so here we're seeing some, you know, some beetle action flying to where Link can't go, you know, hitting switches, opening dungeons, that whole stuff. Some of those puzzles, you know, this is just one of the first dungeons here, but, you know, some of those puzzles get really pretty tough later on. Yeah. Really going to incorporate a lot of those items that you have. You know, another thing to talk about with that Wemotion Plus is, it's not just that Wemotion Plus applies to, you know, your sword and your shield. I mean, it's also going to apply to every item that you get, and they all have a lot of unique control methods, you know, with that beetle, you know, you're controlling it, you're flying it around. But, you know, the same way you do with the bird. Yeah, but you can kind of use your imagination and kind of see, like, where we might go with some other items using that Wemotion Plus. Well, last year at E3, you guys showed off the whip as one of the ladies. Another great example. So satisfying to be flailing that around, absolutely. And any other gadgets you want to reveal this year? No, nothing. No, we saw the beetle before. Like I said, I know I'm being kind of coy, but, you know, the Zelda series is one of those ones that, you know, I think fans like to have those surprises when they engage with the game and dive into it first time. I know that, you know, as I've been going through it, you know, there's nothing like that satisfaction you get when you play that Zelda dungeon for the first time. You know, it's just like that thrill of discovery. Nothing else really gives that kind of kind of feel. And I know that people are really going to dig that when they get into it. All right. Well, we've got some more questions coming in from the folks in Denmark, actually. Thomas writes. Yeah, we've seen, you know, we sort of saw the wide open Sky Island area and you mentioned traveling to the world below. Yes. Will the world below be interconnected? You know, what you do or what do you have to come back up to the Sky Islands? Like, what is the sort of whole world map? How does that work? How does that work? Okay, well, you know, we're not really showing any of the below the cloud stuff. I mean, you're seeing that we're jumping right to a dungeon. But, you know, what I can say is that, you know, as you're flying above, you're going to slowly, throughout the adventure, be opening portals down below. And that's where that interconnectedness comes in. So, again, you can actually fly over those portals, dive back down, adventure some, find a statue, go jump right back up. Go back to your hub. There's that constant interplay between, you know, dipping down below the clouds and rising back up again. And now we see some eyeballs freaking out and gaining you access to get another treasure chest and that, like, really iconic sound that Miyamoto-san was demoing with the orchestra in Nintendo during the press conference. Yeah. A lot of questions about Zelda's history and any sort of connectivity, you know, typically it's the land of Hyrule or, you know, people pieced together a timeline, you know, sort of, yeah. Every game is sort of a game unto itself, but people tie these threads together. Do you want to comment on any of those? Yeah, I mean, it's a delicate subject and, you know, we don't want to reveal too much, but I can say that this story does deal with the forging of the Master Sword, you know, and that really does blow. Oh, really? Yeah, it does. A very unimportant event, you know, a huge, huge event. And also it does lead up to the events in the Ocarina of Time. And that's really, you know, I'll leave it at that, say that. And of course Ocarina of Time 3D coming out. Yeah. The whole new generation of folks going to get to experience that one. Yeah, so there's really going to be a nice interplay there. Yeah. We're experiencing Zelda for the first time. And Henrik, who has clearly experienced Zelda before, writes from Norway asking if Koji Kondo is composing the music or collaborating. On, you know, the sort of iconic Zelda tunes, the new riffs you guys are creating for Skyward Sword. What about the music for this game? You know, the music orchestrated. So, I mean, absolutely beautiful tune. I think you might have heard a little bit of that being woven into the press conference there. At the end, I think there's some music there that fans may not have recognized immediately. And, you know, some of that stuff is coming from that new soundtrack. It is stunning. And they've done such an amazing job. And really, I mean, that orchestrated music made such a huge difference, you know, the impact of those scenes. You know, you saw a little of the taste, you know, the cinematics in that art style, you know, that you're seeing a really, really unique art style. Amazing cinematics. And that music really draws together to create these really impactful scenes. And speaking of music, music hasn't always just been background for Legend of Zelda. It's been the gameplay mechanic, you know, playing that ocarina. John from New York wants to know if this incarnation of Link is also a musical fellow. There might be a musical instrument making an appearance. Yeah, it's every question you want to ask. I want the answer, but I want to discover it too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely one of those games. And so now we're making our way through this dungeon. You're seeing a little bit of We Motion Plus there doing a little balancing here. You know, this is just a slice of this dungeon. You know, I think that the overall experience is huge. All of these dungeons can be just massive experiences. And like I said, sometimes just getting into the dungeon itself is enough challenge. It can really be an adventure. And we've also, of course, because some of Nintendo's big news this year, the press conference is the Wii U. And we've got Neal from Dublin as well as Ricardo from Mexico asking if, you know, backwards compatible this like functionality with the Wii U. Do you guys have the Wii U in mind when you're developing this or any sort of connectivity to that? Right, right. Is that on the plate or you just sort of focus on this? So this game is, you know, firmly a Wii game. You know, it's coming out on Wii. It's coming out this holiday. You know, really, we're showing it for Wii and that's where we're happy with. And we're really actually happy with how the visuals turned out on Wii. I think this game has just nailed that bridge point between the two where it feels like a Zelda game. It really offers a lot of new experiences, really groundbreaking in a lot of ways and really turns the tables on a lot of things. That's very cool. Yeah, thank you so much for bringing this by. Now, one of the things I liked about this temple is, you know, these design touches where you have these plants, then, you know, some of them might, if slashed, yield a heart or something. But others are just there for the aesthetic sense, you know, really sort of creates the sense that this is a rich world. And, you know, yeah, you can slash that mushroom all you want. It's not going to yield anything except the delight of seeing, maybe practicing your cuts with the Wii motion plus. Or, you know, maybe not. Or maybe not. I think you're going to have to do a little bit more discovery for yourself. But, you know, this is actually a good example of, you know, that sense of discovery when you're going through things. You know, you're always constantly hunting for those little upgrade items because you really want those. I mean, the upgrades are going to be significant. And, you know, another thing I want to point out here, and I won't talk too much about it, but, I mean, you notice there is a shield gauge up there on the top left. And that's something that, you know, people haven't really seen before. A shield gauge. Yeah. So, and now doing a little collecting of fungal spores in the environment. Yeah, exactly. So, another example where, hey, you know, you're slashing that mushroom. There might be a reason to do that. So, you're constantly collecting stuff in this game. You know, and the really important reason is that now, more than ever, there's a reason to do that. You know, you aren't just collecting stuff for the sake of collecting it. You know, you have a pretty strong motivation to be grabbed. Yeah, you're going to need to do that to progress. It's a pretty deep system, I think. Well, we're really glad to hear it. And, you know, folks, this has been a really lengthy and really satisfying look at Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword. You mentioned when it was coming out. Mention it again. All right. Holiday. Coming out on holiday. Coming out on holiday this year. Yeah, definitely picking it up. You know, it's just an incredible experience. And I know that fans are just going to eat it up when they get a chance to play it. All right, Eric. Thank you so much for coming by. Thanks a lot. Thanks for showing it off. Pleasure to have you. We're definitely proud of it. Excellent. Now, folks, if you are hungry for even more Skyward Sword stuff, check out our written preview of it, which includes some notes that were revealed during the Nintendo developer's roundtable last night that you didn't see on the show here. Now we're off once more to the wilds of E3 and the Ubisoft booth to see what Homer Abara gets up to in that world.